SURPRISED … CHAU CAVE !

Article about Chau Khe Nuoc Trong Cave and tourist attractions in the South of Quang Binh province by Dr. Nguyen Khac Thai. Quang Binh Travel would like to share the original article by Dr. Thai so that tourists can have a different view of tourist attractions in the South of Quang Binh province.

1. A FEW WORDS INTRODUCTION

History comes to geology and geomorphology to understand the living environment of a special biological entity: humans.

Therefore, after the conquest of Dong Chau, instead of shouting the slogan “forward”, I would like to be a bit more verbose about a resource area, starting with a tectonic perspective that I think is no less special than Phong Nha – Ke Bang, that is Dong Chau Biosphere Reserve. The tour to Dong Chau on March 16 organized by Netin Travel (with the direct guidance of the young, handsome and enthusiastic Director Tran Cuong) brought me new perceptions.

And, all my long-windedness in this series will lead to the goal: Dong Chau needs us and we need Dong Chau very much, not just to proudly shout “forward”, simply, it is the living environment.

Finally, I want to talk about the immense desire of someone who doesn’t have much time left to see the future, which is how Tu Lan in the North – Phong Nha Ke Bang in the center and Chau cave in the South will be a colorful symphony of Quang Binh Tourism today and tomorrow.

Because of that confusion, my series of articles about Dong Chau resources is not for those who are afraid of long reads, I hope you understand.

2. APPROACHING A LAND FROM A GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

Our trip started from Dong Hoi, carrying with it indescribable feelings about a land that we both thought we understood like the palm of our hands, and yet still seemed out of reach. What I felt at that time was a land of Quang Binh that converged typical characteristics of natural diversity: geology, geomorphology, topography, climate, ecology and environmental landscape. Here, geological imprints from 500 million years ago, from the Ordovician period to the present, are still present. Tectonic activities are like a calendar that proves the complex changes of the earth’s crust. Diverse geological structures and lithological compositions are the decisive factors in the diversity of terrain – geomorphology and are also one of the components that make up the geological plan. This plan is constantly being built and broken, leading to the appearance of the terrain today. Tectonic movements also participate in determining the hydrological network, groundwater, natural climate – geography, biodiversity and environmental landscape in a wild and mysterious land of nature.

Explore Cha Loi cave – Kieu cave

The process of movement creates a closed, harmonious and perfect energy cycle to the point that no single element in the system can be considered separately but must be viewed in a unified and dialectical relationship – an evolutionary relationship.

Before this trip, I only had limited knowledge in the survey results of multidisciplinary scientists of the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) such as Paul Pelliot, Henri Maspero, Paul Demiéville, Louis Finot, George Cœdès, Henri Parmentier and even Russian geologist Dovjikov. From then on, my perception only focused on the Phong Nha – Ke Bang karst massif that dominates the entire appearance of the Quang Binh mountainous region.

Before this trip, my only thought was to escape from the Ke Bang limestone system, which is an intermediate mountain range between the Northern Quang Binh mountain range and the Quang Tri basalt system.

Readmore: Phong Nha Travel Experience

Turns out I was wrong.

When our car passed Lang Ho, my views on tectonics and stratigraphy changed. It turned out that what I had learned and read from French geologists, archaeologists, and paleoanthropologists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were only limited surveys in the northern mountainous region; they had forgotten another geomorphological form in the south. While I looked through the window, surprised by the appearance of giant stone mountains, Director of NetinTravel Company Tran Cuong said: “In the southern mountainous region of Quang Binh, there are signs that there are at least 20 caves! NetinTravel is surveying and putting into operation 3 caves, namely “General Cave”, “Van Cave” and “Kieu Cave” in the mountainous region adjacent to Dong Chau”.

Crossing Duong Cam waterfall Tour

The surprise did not stop there because the journey to approach Chau stream left me stunned. In my rather “dusty” climbing clothes, I stepped onto a steep slope (about 15 degrees from the vertical) and began to set foot on an almost wild terrain… And, strangely, in front of me, to my right, to my left, the slopes around me… were not soil, not rock, not weathered sandstone, not a homogeneous type of material at all. I vaguely felt like this place was the chaotic scene of a giant natural building that had collapsed and mixed materials, overlapping each other.

Who? Who came here? What giant came here to smash a huge, seamless geological structure that I once mistook for a mountain of soil, mixing both lithology and geomorphology into a common layer, creating this messy surface. Stones of all shapes and sizes were scattered all over the slope as if they had been touched by human hands. Suddenly I remembered the story of a Polish geological expert during a trip to help Vietnam survey the geology in Lang Son (1974), when he saw quartz stones of many sizes, cubes, scattered in front of a rock roof, he exclaimed: This is an old site and the traces of chipping are the choppers (handaxes) of primitive people. Two leading Vietnamese archaeologists, Tran Quoc Vuong and Ha Van Tan, rushed to Lang Son and then hurriedly returned to Hanoi and locked themselves in the National Library (31 Trang Thi) to read geology and petrology,… Finally, they discovered that it was the natural chipping of the orogeny period over 200 million years ago (exactly 241 – 66.4 million years – Mesozoic-Cretaceous period), making the geologists “encroaching” on archaeology shy and the archaeologists “encroaching” on geology also relieved, hehe! We historians are sometimes “reckless” like that!

And, from the story of Lang Son, I immediately thought of the history of orogeny of this land, not like the “rise” of the Ke Bang karst massif in the North, but the uplifting and breaking of the massif structure into different sized rock slabs. The broken rock slabs were partly due to the uplifting and lowering of the strata, partly due to the uplifting and lowering impact that caused these rock blocks to collide with each other, creating “unnatural” traces that could be mistaken for choppers as traces of primitive human impact.

It turns out that the Northern Truong Son is the kingdom of “limestone” mountains with 2,000 km2 of rocky mountains, including Phong Nha – Ke Bang. And, conversely, the Southern Truong Son is the kingdom of majestic granite with bare mountain slopes, full of giant, purple-blue stone slabs, lying haphazardly. The broken, haphazard limestone on the steep slopes of the terrain that I saw in Dong Chau and the entire southwest mountain area of ​​Le Thuy is an intermediate form between the Northern and Southern Truong Son. The final limit of Karst is the Ngu Hanh Son mountain range and from here also begins the typical stratigraphy of granite. That is the mountain-forming movement that took place in the Triassic period, the Mesozoic era about 240 million to 270 million years ago, and Dong Chau plays an intermediate role between these two forms.

The Dong Chau morphology is part of that historical process.

So, what is interesting about that form for us? Yes!

Firstly, it suggests to us a period of sea encroachment that caused the land from Dong Chau to the present coast… to be submerged in the sea. Similarly, in the North, from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, scientists from the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) discovered scallop sites, traces of ocean mollusks and many traces of marine life, even traces of sea waves left on the Len Bang area and the rocky mountains of Tuyen Hoa district, traces of the Carboniferous – Permian period (362.5 – 245 million years). I am sure that traces of sea encroachment will also be discovered in the future right in the southern region. Discovering that is really interesting because it will decode the terrain structure of the Southwest of Quang Binh and the geo-ecological characteristics of this place.

Second, understanding this tectonic process will provide a basis for explaining why there is a delta in the two districts of Quang Ninh, Le Thuy, all the way to the South of Dong Hoi. It turns out that it is a structure that geological history calls a “geochute” exactly like Da Nang. Da Nang is located on the side of the Southern Truong Son and adjacent to the South of the Northern Truong Son. The Northern Truong Son is originally a deep sea trough (geochute) that has existed since the early Paleozoic era, emerging right from the beginning of the Hersini orogeny (Hersini Recession). I don’t understand why people have studied the geochute morphology in the North and South but “forgot” the geochute morphology in this area, because this will decode the mystery of the delta in the two districts and is also related to flood drainage solutions that somewhere, someone, including a certain university (it is said) is… groping for!!!

The third interesting thing is that approaching geology, geomorphology, and stratigraphy will provide the basis for understanding geoecology, including natural ecology and human ecology, which I want to dedicate to writing in another post in this series.

Facebook, I can’t write long and detailed, but my feeling is really interesting after using the remaining strength of an old man nearing 80 to conquer the fourth adventure level out of 5 levels set by the Quang Binh Department of Tourism, I returned safely to savor the culinary flavors next to the Van Kieu mountain girls with eyes that look deep into the forest, at “SonHomestay” located on the legendary West branch of Ho Chi Minh road.

It turns out that these local delicacies were prepared by culinary experts from Quang Binh University, led by Thuygeo, during their research trips to help ethnic minorities make a living. A party with a strong Van Kieu flavor called “sala party” (sala means “leaf”) made me… drunk without drinking.

Muscle pain, tired knees, restless legs but the laughter of the mountain girls along with the indescribable taste of wild vegetables, stream fish, mountain snails and the kind and wild smiles are like the licorice in a traditional medicine. Joy and sublimation of emotions.

Chau cave is not Ke Bang, nor is it Tu Lan. Chau cave, together with Ke Bang and Tu Lan contribute polymodal melodies to the choir of Quang Binh resources, reaching all levels of beauty.

( to be continued)